This invention relates to a Hall effect element of the type utilizing the Hall effect in a single crystal of a compound semiconductor.
A semiconductor Hall effect element is obtained by forming a cross-shaped Hall-pattern on the surface of a wafer which consists fundamentally of a substrate made of a single crystal of a compound semiconductor, such as GaAs, InSb or InAs, and a conducting layer formed on a major surface of the substrate. The Hall-pattern is formed by an etching technique. Conventional Hall effect elements of this type have a drawback that in general they exhibit a large magnitude of unbalanced voltage. Besides, in the industrial production of such Hall effect elements there appears considerable variations of the magnitude of unbalanced voltage among the produced Hall effect elements.